Today Donald Trump Jr. released a chain of emails detailing his 2016 communication  after being contacted by a music producer expert from The Box Tiger Music (acquaintance) to set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya who claimed to have political opposition research information on Hillary Clinton.

Rob Goldstone is a music producer who represents a Russian pop star named Emin Agalarov.  Emin Agalarov’s father was a business contact who coordinated bringing the Miss Universe pageant to Russia in 2013.  Goldstone contacted Donald Trump Jr. to set up a meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya. The email chain is below:
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

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President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Those of you following along at home might be having a remarkable feeling of Deja-Vu with the similarity between Hillary Clinton’s approach to her emails containing classified information, and James Comey’s approach today to reports of his leaked memos containing “classified” intelligence.
The defensive narrative ‘fact pattern’ appears identical in sequencing:
Step 1 – The emails/memos were not classified. √
Step 2 – The emails/memos were not ‘marked’ classified. √
Step 3 – The emails/memos were ‘retroactively classified‘. √

(Politico Link – Lastest)

Next up in the logical sequence:

Step 4 –  Missing/deleted = Wiped Comey memos: “what, like with a cloth or something?”
Step 5 –  Robert Mueller (filling the role of Comey circa 2016) will hold a 2017 presser to say: James Comey didn’t intentionally violate the law with sharing classified information within his leaked memos in 2017.  Adding: “we could find no intent” by him to do so.
Step 6 – Mueller will conclude his presser by saying: “no reasonable special counsel would recommend charges“.
Bets?
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short deliver information to the media during today’s press briefing:

[Transcript] 2:28 P.M. EDT – MS. SANDERS: Good afternoon. Before we get started, I’d like to bring up Marc Short, the Director of Legislative Affairs, to give an update on how we’re moving the President’s agenda through Congress, particularly on the historic obstruction from Senate Democrats on confirming the President’s incredibly qualified nominees to posts across the federal government.
After his statement, Marc will take a few of your questions on that topic; and after that, I will be back to answer your other questions.
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In addition to Hawaii being the origin of Barack Obama’s worldview and the epicenter of currently failing leftist judicial attempts to block President Trump from implementing a temporary travel ban from known terrorist and extremist nations, now Hawaii has the distinction of being home to an active duty soldier arrested while attempting join ISIS.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –  An active duty Hawaii soldier has been arrested for allegedly trying to provide material support and training to the Islamic State.
FBI special agents and SWAT arrested Ikaika Erik Kang, 34, on Saturday evening at his Waipahu apartment.
Authorities said they believe Kang was a “lone actor,” and “not associated with others who present a threat to Hawaii.”

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You just can’t make this stuff up.  Yesterday it was revealed that several of fired FBI Director James Comey memos contained classified information:
(Via The Hill) More than half of the memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote as personal recollections of his conversations with President Trump about the Russia investigation have been determined to contain classified information, according to interviews with officials familiar with the documents.
This revelation raises the possibility that Comey broke his own agency’s rules and ignored the same security protocol that he publicly criticized Hillary Clinton over in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election. (link)
This latest report is contrary to James Comey’s prior assertion that he specifically wrote the memos about his contact and communication with President Trump to avoid containing classified information.
Today, the recipient of at least one of the leaked memos, Daniel Richman, claims the memo leaked to him by FBI Director Comey, with the specific intention to leak to the New York Times, did not contain markings designating the memo as “classified”:
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The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold the nomination hearing for the position of FBI Director on Wednesday July 12th at 9:30am EDT.   President Trump has nominated Christopher Wray to become the head of the FBI replacing fired director James Comey.

Chairman Chuck Grassley announces:

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing entitled: “Nominations” scheduled for Wednesday, July 12, 2017 will now begin at 9:30 a.m., in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. (link)

Christopher Wray’s confirmation hearing may dive into his legal background but will almost certainly focus on the political nonsense infecting DC. Democrats will be seeking assurances of his independence from President Donald Trump. Lawyers and FBI agents who have worked with Mr. Wray don’t expect that to be a problem, describing him as calm, methodical and even-handed.

Senior counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway talks with CNN’s Chris Cuomo about expanding the Vast Russian Conspiracy.  Russia, Russia, Russia and the Russia investigation. It was a hot mess for 35 minutes.

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However, there’s a brilliant 2 minute video that encapsulates the entire 35 minutes. If you are short on time or blood pressure meds you might prefer to watch that one below.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec